GlobalFoundries to begin work on 22-nm CMOS

LONDON: Fab 1 of GlobalFoundries Incorporated (based in Sunnyvale, California, the United States) in Dresden, Germany, is beginning work to help develop 22-nm CMOS process and will run the process in volume. However, it is not clear whether the 22-nm will include a departure from the gate-first high-K metal gate (HKMG) CMOS processes being currently brought up at 32- and 28-nanometers.

According to analysts, fab 1 is expected to be the workhorse fab at the 45/40-nm and 32/28-nm nodes, while fab 8, the GlobalFoundries’ wafer fab being built in New York state, will run the 22-nm production and more advanced nodes.

Udo Nothelfer, general manager of GlobalFoundries’ fab 1, said the 22-nm node is being worked on in fab 1 and elsewhere. While GlobalFoundries is working fast to set up its fab in New York, commercial production is not scheduled to start there before the second half of 2012 and production of 22-nm CMOS would be required before that.

Fab-1, previously fabs 30 and 36 belonging to Advanced Micro Devices Incorporated, became the first manufacturing site of GlobalFoundries at its formation as a joint venture between AMD and the Abu Dhabi-based Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC).